1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an online game advertising system, which in one embodiment serves as an architecture for enabling the definition, sales, distribution, and management of interactive advertisements, sponsorships, and placements that appear within an online video game as part of the game experience or during idle load, wait, and pause screens.
2. Discussion of Background
The primary business model of traditional offline video games is that game publishers generate revenues through the unit sales of games on the wholesale market. With the advent of pervasive Internet and broadband connectivity, video game publishers are adding online capabilities to their games in order to attract more game players and to explore new revenue models.
Existing online games allow players to play against other live players. Some of these games display banner advertisements that border the main viewable area of the screen in which the game is played. Game players often find these advertisements intrusive and annoying as they distract from the main focus of playing the game.
Video game play is an immersing experience in which game players interact with the characters, scenery, and challenges of the game itself and with other live persons who are also playing the game. Like television and movies, playing video games is a highly engaging experience that often requires the attention of its participants.